


Communication Blackout

by adrestia_of_the_long_night



Series: Sky Wars Collection [2]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: 12 months past, Cody/Rex/Ahsoka friendship, Coruscant (Star Wars), Coruscant Guard, Episode: s04e15 Deception, F/M, Fake Deaths, Jedi Council Lies, Mission lasts longer, One Shot, Post-Episode: s04e15 Deception
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-05
Updated: 2020-07-09
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:42:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 18,537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24554854
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/adrestia_of_the_long_night/pseuds/adrestia_of_the_long_night
Summary: Deception 4.15Obi Wan and Anakin both fake their deaths.  Ahsoka is put on Temple lockdown, while the 501st and 212th are put into a Communication blackout.  The undercover mission takes over a year instead of days.Lies are very common in the GAR and Jedi Order but what happens when the Clones and their favorite Padawan decide to return the favor?
Relationships: CC-2224 | Cody & CT-7567 | Rex, CT-7567 | Rex/Ahsoka Tano
Series: Sky Wars Collection [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1773808
Comments: 129
Kudos: 374





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This idea took over my head and refused to depart until I wrote it down.

***

Ahsoka wandered the lower streets of Coruscant for hours after she had received the news that her Master Anakin Skywalker and Grand Master Obi Wan Kenobi were both dead, and that she was once again alone in the world. Both the 501st and the 212th were deployed at the moment and under a no communication blackout so neither Legion was aware that their Generals were murdered by a Bounty Hunter and that their funerals were scheduled for the following morning.

Ahsoka didn’t know what to do, she WANTED to talk to Rex about what had happen, if only her Master had let her go with them, maybe she could’ve done SOMETHING in order to help them. But she had been left behind at the Temple for lessons. Now she was alone while the only people she wanted to talk to were either dead or on another planet.

“Commander Tano!”

Ahsoka paused in her musing at the sound of her name and she quickly looked around for the source, “Commander Fox?” she was confused, why was the Coruscant Guard Commander looking for her?

“Where have you been?” Fox was frustrated, he had gotten a Comm from Rex asking for him to check in on the Padawan, as he had been unable to contact her and was concern that something had happened. “Rex has been bombarding me with Comms about you.”

“What?” Ahsoka was beyond confused. “The 501st is under a Communication black-out, I can’t contact HIM,” she countered as the Guard Commander started to frown in response.

“No, they aren’t,” Fox said slowly, as he gestured toward a nearby Café, after they sat down, Fox removed his Comm and plugged in Rex’s code and the pair sat in silence as the 501st Captain came online.

“Fox?” Rex sounded half awake as though he had been asleep. “Have you figured out what’s going on at the Temple?”

“Rex?” Ahsoka said hesitantly.

“Commander!” he sounded happier now. “Why weren’t you replying to your Comms? The boys have been worried.”

Ahsoka looked at Fox as she replied, “I can’t Comm YOU, I was told that you were in a Communication Blackout.”

“What?” Rex was confused. “Who said that?”

“The Jedi Council.”

“Why would the Council say that?” Fox interjected.

“Probably because of what happened this morning,” she said softly as the tears threaten to start again.

“What are you talking about?” Fox was confused. Fox grabbed a flimsi from his belt and started to go over the reports.

“Master Kenobi and Master Skywalker,” Ahsoka started slowly. “They were both killed by a bounty hunter.”

“What?!” Rex was confused. “Why wouldn’t they tell us?”

“Looks like the Council just put out a statement on the holonet,” Fox supplied as he pulled up the report. “But why not inform their men? Or the Guard?”

Ashoka shrugged as started to twist a napkin, “Master Yoda said that I’m to stay at the Temple until I get reassigned.”

“What did you just say?” Rex was beyond mad. First his General was killed, then they somehow blocked communication going in and out of the 501st, and now they were going to remove their Commander?

“Their reassigning me,” she said stronger.

“Di’kut,” Rex muttered. “Where?”

“I don’t know,” Ahsoka looked around. “They won’t tell me anything, I heard them talking about it after I left the Council Chambers when they brought me in to tell me what had happened.”

“So, you’re OFFICALLY not bound to Coruscant?” Rex asked, Ahsoka could hear him as he moved to grab his flimsi. “And OFFICIALLY your still attached to the 501st?”

“Yes, to both,” Ahsoka replied instantly. “Their planning to tell me tomorrow after the funerals.”

“Fox.”

“Are you sure?” Fox instantly knew what the Captain was planning, and was already pulling up transport information on his end.

“I’m not going to let the Jetii, take another one,” Rex countered as Fox’s flimsy beeped with a transport request. “As long as she’s not officially removed from the roster then I can order her deployment as the Commander of the 501st.”

“I can get her on a transport to you tonight,” Fox replied as he looked at the slightly stunned Padawan sitting across from him. “Are you alright, Commander Tano?”

“Yeah, I’ll be better when I’m back with the 501st.”

“Don’t worry kid,” Rex’s voice sounded sure over Fox’s Comm. “You’ll be here by morning,” Rex disconnected, she assumed to go and inform the men of the 501st and the 212th about what had happened to their Generals.

“Commander Tano, we have to hurry if we’re going to get you on the cruiser,” Fox said softly.

“Right,” Ahsoka nodded as the pair headed to the spaceport.

***

Ahsoka rotated the newly issued Comm in her hands, Commander Fox had taken her old Jedi Comm and given her a GAR issued Comm that hadn’t been tampered with by the Council, unfortunately it only had Rex’s and Fox’s Comm codes installed. At the moment though, Ahsoka was glad for that because she was tired of receiving Comms from her fellow Jedi telling her that they were sorry and that Masters Skywalker and Kenobi were now one with the Force. She was slightly sad that she no longer had Padme’s, Barris’ or Riyo’s, but a clean break was for the best because if this was to be her final mission with the 501st then she couldn’t be friends with them because it would remind her to much of her fallen Master and of their many missions together.

“We’ve landed, Commander Tano,” Sargent Tal said as he gestured her toward the exit. 

“Thank you, for letting me tag along,” Ahsoka said quietly as she followed the clone toward the hatch.

“It’s alright, Commander Fox explained what had happened,” Tal shrugged. “We understand wanting to be with your brothers.

Ahsoka was startled at the comparison, “Your right, Sargent.”

The pair paused as the top of the ramp and Ahsoka was greeted by a clone wearing familiar Jaig eyes.

“Rex!” Ahsoka hurried down the ramp and threw herself into the Captain’s arms as she burst into tears.

“I’ve got you, littl’one,” Rex said softly as he talked to the flight crew that had brought Ahsoka planetside. “I hope that we didn’t take you too far out of your way.”

“Not at all Captain,” Tal stated as he reached to close the ramp. “Glad that we could help.”

***

Both Legions agreed to not let on that they knew what had happened on Coruscant and that Commander Tano was with them now.

Cody took over all communications with the Council and played the part of the perfect Clone Commander for them. It was nearly three weeks after Commander Tano’s arrival that they requested Rex to be present for the meeting.

“What do you think they want?” Rex questioned as he nodded at Fives as the ARC walked past with a member of the 212th. Both Legions had basically banded together in the past three weeks and it was primarily Commander Tano’s presence that prevented either Legion from completely breaking down after the loss of the Generals.

They may have lost their Generals, but they still had their Padawan, and while General Kenobi wasn’t her Master, she had still spent a great deal of time with the 212th so the Legion was claiming her as ‘their’ Commander as well, much to Cody’s amusement. Not that he did much to put a stop to it, it was helping both Legions as well as Commander Tano to recover far quicker than he thought was possible. Most Legions and Padawans never recovered from a loss of their General. The one thing the Marshall Commander DID know was that if they lost Commander Tano then both Legions would collapse soon after.

“I don’t know,” Cody shook his head as they entered the Command tent.

“Commander, the Jedi Council is online,” Sol reported, the shiny while technically a member of the 212th, his armor was painted with a blend of 212th Gold and 501st blue. Cody approved, Sol had spent equal time with both Legions and Fives and Jesse had taken to training him as well.

“Generals,” Cody nodded his head in acknowledgment as the council appeared in front of him.

“Commander Cody, Captain Rex. Good to see you both,” Yoda said.

“Yes sir,” Rex replied.

“Terrible news we have to inform you of,” Yoda continued as he exchanged glanced with Master Windu.

“Padawan Tano has disappeared from Coruscant,” Windu stated bluntly. “No one knows where she is.”

Cody and Rex both shared stunned looks, how could they NOT know she was with them? The travel orders were on record.

“Missing sir?” Rex questioned, injecting a stunned tone in his voice that he hoped carried over to the Jedi Masters.

“Yes,” Windu nodded in response. “The Coruscant Guard has been notified and Commander Fox has been looking for her.”

“Thank you for letting us know,” Cody stated as he saw Rex gesture to Sol to contact Fox.

“You will let us know if there’s any information?”

“Of course,” Yoda replied.

“How goes the battle there?” Kit asked.

“It’s going to be a long one like General Kenobi predicted,” Cody watched the Jedi’s reaction at his mention of Kenobi, they didn’t even blink. What the kiff was going on there?

An hour later, just as the Council ended their Comm then Fox appeared in their place.

“Cody, Rex, what’s the problem?” Fox was confused, the trooper who had contacted him sounded very confused on the Comm.

“You’re looking for Commander Tano,” Cody started as Fox shook his head in negative. “According to the Council you are.”

“No, I’m not,” Fox was frowning now. “No one has been in contact with ANY of my guards about her.”

“Your positive? 

“Yes,” Fox replied as he leaned forward. “What is going on?”

“I don’t know,” Cody frowned as he exchanged looks with Rex. “Something is going on there and they don’t want us to know.”

“Do you want me to look into it?”

“Negative, Fox,” Rex interjected. “We don’t want the Council to realize that we know more then what they’re telling us.”

“Roger that.”

***

It was nearly twelve months later when the Jedi cruisers appeared in orbit. Their appearance caused a ripple of unease throughout the Legions and their Jedi Commander. The Jedi’s arrival could only mean one thing: they had finally found out about Commander Tano.

“A gunship is on its way to the landing zone,” Sol reported as he approached the Marshall Commander with Commander Tano at his side.

“Time’s up?” Ahsoka sounded much like her old self but he could hear the slight tremor in her voice.

“It’ll be ok Commander Tano,” Rex stated as he waved Fives and Jesse over. “Take a squad and keep the Commander OUT of the base until we know what’s going to happen.”

“Yes sir,” Fives saluted as he grabbed a mixture of 501st and 212th troopers and headed opposite of the landing zone.

“Delaying the inevitable?”

“They can’t do anything,” Rex countered with a sigh. “The orders were signed over ten months ago.”

“Let’s do this.”

***

Cody was PISSED and Rex had already broken a nearby Comm screen. The two DEAD Generals standing in front of them shared disbelieving looks with each other at the Clones reactions.

“Cody, Rex,” Obi Wan stated slowly. “I’m going to take your reactions that someone must’ve told you about our supposive ‘deaths’ and that is why you are upset at us.”

“Di’kut,” Cody muttered as he clinched his hands in order to prevent him from striking his return from the dead Jedi General. “YES,” he replied with a quick glance at the tent entrance, the Generals reappearance would’ve swept through the base in a matter of minutes. “Care to explain how your NOT dead as reported?”

“We have other more pressing news…”

“Not until you explain,” Rex cut off Anakin with a growl.

“We are still your Generals…”

“Respectfully sirs,” Cody interrupted. “No, you’re not. You were replaced over ten months ago, because you DIED over twelve months ago.”

Anakin and Obi Wan shared disbelieving looks at Cody’s reply.

***

“That was…” Rex shook his head in disbelief as the pair finished telling what had occurred over the past twelve months.

“Brave?” Anakin grinned.

“STUPID, sir,” Rex glanced at Cody in disbelief. “You let EVERYONE think you were dead for nearly a year and you expect to just WALK back in?”

“We may not be your Generals anymore but we do have something dire to talk to you about,” Obi Wan stated as he glanced at Anakin. The pair were correct, life had continued when they were gone and they had to expect that they couldn’t go back to things the way they were before they had left for their undercover mission.

“Dire?”

“Ahsoka’s missing,” Anakin supplied. “No one knows where she is or…”

He trailed off as Cody and Rex shared a disbelieving look as they started to laugh. 

“What is it?” Obi Wan questioned.

“Did you EVEN talk to General Windu?” questioned Cody. “Or at the very minimum Commander Ponds or even Commander Fox?”

“Why?”

“Cause General Windu was the one who signed off on the Commander’s reassignment twelve months ago,” Rex replied. “She has never been missing and her location is registered with the GAR.”

“Impossible,” Obi Wan countered as he glanced around the command tent and noticed that every Clone was nodding their head in agreement with the Marshall Commander’s comment.

“Then why didn’t Mace tell us?”

Cody shrugged at that, “I don’t know, all I can tell you General is that General Windu signed off on the Commander’s assignment orders personally.”

“Who are your new Generals?” questioned Obi Wan suddenly.

“We just have the one,” Rex shrugged in reply.

“So, the other Legion still needs a General?”

“Negative sir,” Cody stated, “the 501st and the 212th were merged, Rex and I each mange our respective Legions and the General overseas both of us. It’s not common and it wouldn’t work for any of the other Legions BUT it works just fine with us.” Plus, the advantage to the merger of the two Legions was that he and Rex were able to clean house and removed Tarkin from the Resolute, since there was no reason to have two Admirals in a merged Legion.

“One General?”

Rex waved his hand around the base, “It works.”

“Why would you agree to that?!”

“Like I said, it wouldn’t work for everyone else, but after, you know,” Cody gestured at the Generals. “We realized that if we wanted both Legions to remain in one piece we had to work outside of the box and we got a General who agreed with us,” he shrugged. “Though she said that if it doesn’t work out that she’s not taking the blame,” he grinned at the argument from over ten months ago with Commander Tano.

According to the paperwork, she was the General of the combined 501st and 212th Legions, Ponds had gotten General Windu to unknowingly sign off on it and had then proceeded to bury the evidence in the General’s office. Cody had informed the Clone Commanders and they had been actively curtailing their Generals messages and reports about any information on both of the Legions and their ‘new’ General for months.

“How do you know that Ahsoka was reassigned?” Anakin questioned suddenly.

Rex glanced at him with an unreadable expression on his face, “Commander Fox contacted me, sir.”

“What?”

“I got concerned when I couldn’t get in contact with Commander Tano so I asked Commander Fox to check in on her. It turned that her Comm had been tampered with and she couldn’t receive any Comms from the 501st or 212th,” Rex watched as the Generals shared a disbelieving look. “She mentioned that the Council had informed her that the two of you were dead and that she was going to be getting reassigned shortly after your funerals.”

“That’s it?” Anakin asked. “Is that all you know?”

“That was our last conversation,” from Commander Fox’s Comm device, Rex silently added. “Since the Council obviously didn’t want her in contact with either Legion, plus we couldn’t get a straight answer out of the Jedi Council when Cody and I tried to talk to them.”

“So, we need to get back to Coruscant,” Anakin stated as the pair turned to depart the Command tent.

“Is your General here?” Obi Wan questioned suddenly, looking around for his fellow Jedi.

“The General went out on a recon mission, we’re about to gear up in a couple of hours,” Cody supplied with a sideway glance at Rex.

Rex pushed a button on his Comm and ordered the designated squads to gear up.

“If you’ll excuse us Generals, we have a mission to complete,” Cody stated as he walked them back to their gunship. “I’m…. glad that you’re not dead sirs but it’ll take awhile before any of us are ready to talk with you.”

“I understand.”

Anakin suddenly frown at the sight of a familiar astromech droid, “Isn’t that…”

“R7,” Cody grinned at the sight of the now familiar astromech droid. “Torrent brought him down with them and R7 has been a valued member ever since.”

“R7?” Obi Wan questioned softly.

“R7 was Ahsoka’s astromech droid, on the Resolute,” Anakin supplied as he realized that Torrent must’ve taken Ahsoka’s reassignment harder than he realized. Considering the highly polished droid they had taken to caring for it similar to the way Anakin had taken care of R2D2.

“How often do you polish him?” Obi Wan was amused at how shinny the astromech droid was.

“Whenever there’s a speck on dirt on him,” Cody shrugged. “Polishing R7 is a standard punishment here, in order to keep that droid, clean the trooper has to literally follow him everywhere,” Cody gestured to the current polisher who was following the droid around camp.

“Don’t they get tired of it though?”

“No, if anything chasing R7 around teaches the shinny’s that cleaning their armor and weapons is easier then chasing a droid around base.

“I see,” Obi Wan was amused.

“What will you do now, Generals?” Cody asked suddenly as they stopped at their Gunship.

“Go back to Coruscant and speak to Mace, Ponds and Fox about what they recall about Ahsoka’s assignment order from a year ago.”

“Good luck, sirs.”

***

“Cody, how long do you think it’s going to take them to figure out that we never mentioned the General’s name?”

“Not long at all Rex,” Cody smiled slightly. “How long do you think it’s going to take them to find out that Commander Tano is with us?”

“That depends on how long it takes Fox and Ponds to break,” Rex mussed out loud. “Fox is mad that the Council LIED to the Guard and then used them to cover up that the Council lost the Commander and Ponds is mad that she was literally cut off from everyone she knew, that virus the Council put on her Comm infected a lot of people she WAS able to contact.”

“Cody, Rex?” Ahsoka called out as she approached the duo near the Command tent. “What did the Jedi want?”

Cody and Rex shared a long hard look before they gestured for her to follow them inside the Command tent, “We need to talk about that, Commander.”

***

“Captain?” Kix asked hesitantly at the sight that greeted him when he entered the barracks that night. The Commander was curled up sound asleep with tear streaks down her face but the oddest part was that she was half laying on the Clone Captain. “The Generals?”

Rex nodded as waved a flimsy in his free hand. “She took it pretty hard,” Rex shrugged, Ahsoka’s habit of falling asleep on him was no longer as common as it once was when she had first rejoined them but the majority of their brothers were no longer fazed at the sight.

“I still can’t believe they did that,” Kix muttered in disbelief. “I thought that Boil and Fives were going to hunt them down.”

“Don’t get them started again,” Cody directed as he entered walked up behind the medic. “I just got everyone to settle down again, we don’t want any outside eyes here,” his warning ALWAYS worked, outside eyes meant people realizing that their ‘General’ was actually a Padawan and that the true Leader of their Legions was in fact a Clone Marshall Commander and Clone Captain. Cody was NOT a fan of any questions on how the 212th and 501st operated, they stayed together and that was the only thing that mattered to the three of them at the end of the day.

“Outsiders,” Del muttered, no one in the Legions liked the unknown element anymore. Brothers were SAFE, everyone else wasn’t.

After all nobody bothered to visit them in the field anymore and they hadn’t been near the Core since prior to the Generals ‘deaths.’

What could possibly go wrong?

***


	2. Second Place Again

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shades of Reason 5.15  
> The Lawless 5.16
> 
> Anakin & Obi Wan return to Coruscant in order to search out the answers as to the location of Padawan Ahsoka Tano but receive a comm that diverts their attention away from their search for the missing Padawan.

***  
Obi Wan watched as the Temple came into view, a sense of peace came over him with a sudden upswelling of dread. It had been over 12 months since he had been around his fellow Jedi and although he and Anakin had spoken with Master Yoda neither had walked inside the Temple choosing instead to meet outside its sacred walls.

“Master?” Anakin questioned as they came to a stop at the entrance to the temple.

“I’m fine Anakin,” Obi Wan replied with a tired grimace crossing his face. “You don’t have to all me Master anymore; you know.”

“I know, Master,” came back his automatic reply. “Are you ready for this?”

“We will never be ready for this,” Obi Wan sighed as they exited the gunship and started toward the Temple entrance, “We have a new mission, my former Padawan: Where was Ahsoka stationed?”

“And we still have to find out who the new Jedi Master is for the 501st and 212th since neither Cody nor Rex told us,” the pair recalled that moment when they had reboarded the Jedi cruiser and realized that the pair hadn’t given them the name of their new General.

“The question my former Padawan is what are they hiding?” he countered as they headed toward the Council Chambers.

***

“Padawan Tano WAS NOT reassigned,” Mace stated, he was stunned at Anakin’s question.

“She WAS,” Anakin countered. “According to Captain Rex, the last time he spoke with her, she had told him that she was going to be reassigned after our ‘funeral’ services,” he had zero doubt in the Captain’s words, if that was what Ahsoka told him then that was it.

“When did they speak?” questioned Kit with a frown.

“The day before the funerals,” Obi Wan supplied. “Apparently, Ahsoka’s comm had been tampered with and she was unable to contact the Captain herself since he had to get Commander Fox to track her down on Coruscant on his behalf,” he watched his fellow Council members at his words, he got his answer when a guilty look entered some of the Masters eyes.

“You knew her comm had been compromised,” Anakin stated when he caught the same look that Obi Wan had. “Why?” he demanded, “I never would’ve agreed to the mission if you had told me that you were going to isolate my Padawan and threaten my men not to contact her.

“Threaten, we did not,” Yoda replied sadly, “Informed Padawan Tano that they had been in a communications blackout for their mission and that she wouldn’t be able to speak with them at the time,” he continued, “We did not account for the Captain’s interference.”

Anakin frowned at that, he knew his men and no way would they have just accepted a no-contact order with their Commander. “Then you really don’t know the Clones, if you thought that they were going to just accept the fact that they couldn’t contact their General OR their Commander and they wouldn’t investigate the reason why.”

“You are right, Knight Skywalker,” Mace nodded his head in agreement. “But be that as it may, Ahsoka Tano wasn’t assigned to a new Master.”

Obi Wan eyes suddenly opened as he recalled Cody and Rex’s comments on Ahsoka, they never once said ‘Master’ they only had stated ‘orders’ and ‘reassignment,’ words that corresponded more to a Clone Trooper then to a member of the Jedi Order. But even as the thought passed through his mind, he forced himself to dismiss it as well, there was no way that Ahsoka had been reassigned by the GAR and not by the Jedi Council.

“Master Kenobi?” questioned Master Koon. “Is there something on your mind?” the disappearance of Ahsoka had hit the Master hard.

“No, Masters,” he shook his head, “it was just an impossible thought,” he thought to who else Cody and Rex had said might know where Ahsoka was. “Masters, if we could be excused, we will go speak with Commander Fox, and see what he recalls.”

“Of course,” Mace said as the Council released the pair.

“May the Force be with you.”

“And also, with you, Masters.”

***

“What was it?” questioned Anakin as they headed to the Coruscant Guard Headquarters.

“Something impossible.”

“Tell me,” he pushed.

“That Ahsoka’s with the 501st,” Obi Wan laughed, “and that Rex and Cody somehow got her transferred back to them without the Council’s permission.”

“Your right Master, that IS impossible,” Anakin replied with a laugh as well. “The Marshall Commander of the 212th and the Captain of the 501st ‘kidnapped’ a Jedi Padawan.”

***

“General Skywalker, General Kenobi,” Fox saluted the pair as they entered his office. “Is there something I can do for you?”

“My Padawan Ahsoka Tano,” Anakin closed his eyes and forced himself to correct his words. “Former Padawan Ahsoka Tano, Captain Rex said he had contacted you in order to locate her last year when he was unable to reach her via comm.”

“That’s correct,” Fox nodded, “Rex contacted me when he wasn’t able to contact her,” he grimaced in remembrance, “he wouldn’t stop pinging me until I found her for him.”

“That doesn’t sound like Rex,” Anakin frowned as he glanced over at the also frowning Obi Wan.

“Well, he wasn’t exactly happy,” Fox shrugged in reply, “He couldn’t get a straight answer out of the GAR or the Jedi Council at the time and Commander Tano wasn’t answering comms from Fives or Jesse, so he tried,” he paused at their confused looks, “Commander Tano doesn’t ignore comms from the Captain.”

“She doesn’t?” Anakin questioned with and odd tone in his voice.

“Not since Umbara,” Fox replied softly, causing the Jedi to wince in remembrance of the disastrous mission. “It took a while before they were back to 100%, I know some of the men relapsed after they received the news on your… deaths and that they were either going to be assigned a new General or that the Legions were going to be dismantled and spread out amongst the GAR.”

“Dismantled?” Obi Wan questioned with a strangled gasp as he finally realized what Cody and Rex had meant when they said that one Jedi worked for them, it hadn’t been because it ‘worked’ but because it kept the Legions in one piece. Anakin felt his shock over their bond and both of them realized the amount of pain they had inadvertently caused their men.

“But what of Ahsoka?” Anakin pushed urgently. “Do you know where she ended up?”

Fox paused for a moment making sure to pick his wording very carefully, “I believe that Commander Ponds and General Windu were the ones that generated her orders.”

“Ponds?” Anakin looked over at Obi Wan and they were already moving toward the exit before they remember to say goodbye to Commander Fox.

As soon as they were out of his office, Fox grabbed his comm and contacted Cody.

“Cody.”

“The Generals just left my office, their heading toward Ponds.”

“Copy that, thanks Fox.”

“No problem Cody.”

***

Obi Wan hung up his comm and looked at Anakin with a face of deep regret on it, “What is it, Obi Wan?” questioned Anakin as they walked back to the GAR barracks.

“I just received a message from the Duchess Satine,” Obi Wan frowned. “Maul is on Mandalore.”

“Then we need to go,” Anakin stated.

“And what of Ahsoka?”

“The sooner we bring in Maul, the sooner we can return our focus to finding her,” Anakin stated with a harden look in his eyes, his refusal to let Obi Wan go by himself was what had ultimately caused Ahsoka’s and the Legions reassignments in the first place.

“Right, let’s inform the Council and head out.”

“Right, Master.”

***

Cody hung up his comm and turned and was greeted by Fives and Boil standing silently behind him. “What are you two doing there?” he questioned.

“The Generals are putting someone else above the Commander again?” questioned Fives with a defeated look on his face as he recalled Commander Ponds comments to Cody.

“You’re surprised?” Ahsoka stated as she and Rex entered the room, the Padawan’s face was just beaten by the knowledge that she would never be the first priority to either Master Skywalker or Master Kenobi. “His priority has always been Obi Wan, Padme, R2D2, the men, and then me.”

“Littl’un,” Rex pulled her into his arms, he had become accustomed the art of hugging over the past year. “They’ll get themselves sorted and when they do, they’ll realize were exactly you are.”

“Yeah, where you BELONG,” Fives joined in as he and Boil headed out of Cody’s office in order to inform the men that the Generals were di’kut and hadn’t figured out their secret yet.

“Boil, inform the men that we depart the planet at 0030,” Cody ordered as he turned his attention back to the depressed Commander. “Commander, you have never just belonged to the General.”

“What?” she questioned as she twisted in Rex’s arms.

“Rex?”

“What he means littl’un, is that you have ALWAYS belong to the men of the 501st and we would never let you be forgotten,” Rex continued with a grimace as he shared a look with Cody as he revealed something that they hadn’t told her before. “After all we did steal you from the Jedi, and lied to the GAR and Jedi Council about where you are.”

“Stole me?” Ahsoka frowned. “I thought that I was still assigned to the 501st?”

“Technically… no you weren’t,” Rex tossed a look over at Cody. “Fox and I both knew that you wouldn’t leave Coruscant unless you thought that it was legal for me to authorize your deployment.”

“You lied?” she was stunned, she had never thought that REX or FOX would lie!

“Yes,” he nodded his head as she twisted in his arms again and hugged him close.

“Thanks for ‘stealing’ me,” she muttered into his armor.

***


	3. More Questions But Some Answers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Obi Wan and Anakin are on the hunt for Maul on Mandalore while the 212th and 501st Legions are sent toward the edge of Wild Space on the hunt for a rumored Separatist stronghold. The hunt for Ahsoka begins in earnest by a Jedi Master.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ponds, Fox and Wolffe are all walking a very thin tightrope at the moment.
> 
> Obi Wan needs some downtime in order to decompress while Anakin needs a break from being the responsible one in the group.

****

Anakin had never once in his life been scared of Obi Wan Kenobi, never in all the years that he had known the famed Jedi Master but he was afraid now. Their arrival on Mandalore should’ve been uneventful but they had walked into a bloodbath. Mauls’ forces had rounded up Satine’s allies into camps and he had her in imprisoned withing the throne room at the Sundari palace.

Maul had waited until he had Obi Wan and Anakin to be brought to him by the Mandalorians that were loyal to him before he killed Satine in front of them, afterwards he had both Jedi knocked out by tranq darts and when they awoke, they had been alone in the throne room with the Duchess’s body.

“Obi Wan,” Anakin muttered as he tried to convince the Jedi Master to let go of the Duchess’ body. “We need to go.”

“No,” he growled back in reply with a maddening look entering his eyes. “We need to find Maul and this time ENSURE that he is dead,” as he finally let go of his former love’s body and forced himself to stand up.

Anakin forced himself to remain calm when Obi Wan looked at him with a dead look in his eye, even as he nodded his agreement with the Master, he could swear that he saw a twinge of yellow in his Master’s eyes.

As Obi Wan guided the way out of the Sundari palace he swears that Maul would die by his hand for all that he had taken from the Jedi Master over the years, after all he mused to himself he had lost everything else that mattered to him, Cody, the 212th, Ahsoka, Satine, the 212th Legion, EVERYONE except Anakin and he refused to give the Sith Lord a chance to take Anakin away from him as well. 

***

Commander Fox was confused as to why General Plo Koon was standing inside his office with Commander Wolffe at his side. “Can I help you General?” he questioned as he gestured toward the pair to take a seat across from his desk.

“Commander Fox, I am curious about something,” the Master questioned as he looked directly at Wolffe who was refusing to look at his General. “Tell me Commander, where is Ahsoka Tano?”

“General?” Fox played dumb as he tried to think of a way out of this line of questioning.

“Where is Ahsoka Tano?” Koon stated again as he turned to look directly at the Commander of the Coruscant Guard.

“What makes you think I know, where Commander Tano is?” Fox countered quickly.

“Because the Jedi Council assigned you to locate her when she vanished from Coruscant last year,” Koon replied.

“No, they didn’t,” Fox countered hotly as he slammed his hands against his desk, his reaction caused the General to lean forward slightly in sudden awareness.

“The Council DIDN’T task you with locating the Padawan?” the stillness of the usually calm General slightly worried the two Clone Commanders.

“No, they didn’t,” he repeated. “That is the same response I told Commander Cody and Captain Rex when they questioned me about the hunt for Commander Tano.”

“They are looking for her as well?” he questioned curiously.

“They didn’t trust the response they received from the Jedi Council and they contacted me directly to ask me about it,” Fox replied as he exchanged quick looks with Wolffe before he continued. “I told them that the Council NEVER reported her as missing, in fact the only report I have on her was the one that Cody and Rex filed.”

Master Koon suddenly stood up and moved toward the window, “They never reported her missing?”

“No, General,” Fox repeated as he and Wolffe stood up and the pair pushed down a twinge of guilt at lying to the General. “According to my men, the only people that they were unable to question about it was the Jedi,” unofficially the case had been closed since Commander Tano had been found with the 501st and 212th Legions, but he wasn’t going to offer that information to anyone who couldn’t have been bothered to check into a supposive investigation about someone he obviously cared a great deal about.

“I see,” Koon replied quietly as he turned around to look at the two Commanders standing behind him. “What of Commander Ponds?”

“I’ll contact him and request that he come here,” Fox offered as he contacted his brother.

***

General Windu was looking through his flimsi at orders he had signed since the start of the war when he gave up in frustration and finally summoned Ponds to his office, “Commander, I want you to pull ALL orders from 12 months ago,” he ordered as he tossed the flimsi on his desk. 

“May I ask why General?” Ponds questioned as him moved over to grab the discarded flimsi in order to start pulling up the requested orders, he had a general idea on what he was after, but he enjoyed messing with the usually stannic General.

“Kenobi and Skywalker are claiming that Padawan Tano had been reassigned,” Mace informed him with a frown. “Or at least that is what Commander Cody was informed by the Padawan before she went missing.”

“Commander Cody?” Ponds knew that wasn’t exactly true, Commander Tano had told Rex and he had told Cody.

“Yes,” Windu frowned as Ponds handed him the flimsi with all of the orders from the requested timeframe. “Thank you, Commander,” he muttered, as he was already engrossed into reading the orders on the flimsi. “Before you leave ensure you send these orders,” he gestured toward a flimsi sitting on the corner of his desk.

“A Separatist stronghold?”

“A possibility,” Mace waved his hand around before stating. “Deploy a Legion to check it out,” he ordered as he turned his attention completely to his reading.

As Ponds left his General’s office, he shook his head as he assigned the orders to the 501st and 212th Legions, best to get them OUT of the line of fire, he inwardly mused. He had just finished forwarding the orders to the GAR and Commander Cody when his comm started to beep.

***

Ponds had been having a bad day. First two DEAD Generals turned out to be alive, and then people started to ask about things that no one outside of the Clones had cared about in over a year, namely the current location of Commander Ahsoka Tano. He paused just before he entered Fox’s office in order to build up his mental defenses before entering the room that contained a General and two of his fellow Commanders.

“General Koon,” Ponds nodded as he also acknowledged his brothers as well before moving to take the open chair next to Wolffe. “I understand that this is about Commander Tano?”

“Yes Commander,” Koon stated as he leaned forward in Fox’s chair. “What do you KNOW?” he stressed the word as he glanced between the three Clones sitting across from him.

“What do you mean, sir?” Ponds replied, the General was going to have to do a great deal better if he wanted to break HIM, after all General Koon had NOTHING on General Windu.

“According to Master Kenobi, young Soka was given reassignment orders shortly before their ‘funerals’ and that she was to be sent out afterwards to a new Master and Legion,” Koon summarized what Obi Wan and Anakin had revealed in the Council Chambers. “Do you know WHERE she was sent?”

“Negative, General,” Ponds answered truthfully, he didn’t know where she had been sent, he had gotten involved about two months later and there had been about ten campaigns in that timeframe. “I do not know where she went after she left Coruscant.”

Koon frowned, he could not sense any deceit from the Clone Commander, “What do you know?” he questioned the Clone Commander yet again.

Ponds shrugged as he glanced over at his two brothers as he revealed the following, “General Windu is going over all orders that had been issued during the timeframe that Commander Tano went missing,” he, he gestured his hand slightly in order to calm his brothers down. “He had me pull all reassignment orders from 12 months ago,” at his words both Fox and Wolffe calmed down, the reassignment orders were signed ten months ago and she had left Coruscant on Travel orders NOT reassignment orders, so there was no way for the General to find out anything unless he decided to broaden his review of the GAR orders on file.

“What of her comm then?” Koon questioned suddenly

“What of it?” Wolffe was confused now.

“She hasn’t answered or sent any comms since that day,” Koon pushed.

“Her comm had been affected by a virus,” Fox stated with a frown as he looked over at Ponds.

“There was a report issued to the Jedi Council, General,” Ponds supplied as he glanced over at Wolffe.

“General,” Wolffe was concerned about the General now, “this was discussed,” while Commander Tano hadn’t been identified specifically, it HAD been discussed amongst the Wolfpack.

Koon looked between the trio, “Explain,” a heavy feeling entered his heart as he realized that he hadn’t known something so SIMPLE about his little Soka.

“Her comm had been affected by a virus that prevented her from sending comms to members of the GAR, it unfortunately spread to the people that HAD been able to contact her,” Ponds continued. “We nearly had to replace the entire comm network before we realized that it was a virus that we could remove with a security update to the network.”

“Unfortunately her comm had been confiscated by that time and she had been issued a new one,” what Fox didn’t reveal was that she had been issued a GAR comm verses a Jedi comm and that since he had given her one of the Coruscant Guard Comms that there was an additional layer of security on it as well, so unless you had her code there was no way you were going to contact her without it.

“A new comm?” the Jedi was confused.

“Yes, sir,” Ponds nodded in reply. “Perhaps she left her comm code with her friends?”

“Who?” Koon was felling lost, right now, his little Soka hadn’t given him her new comm code.

“Padawan Barriss Offee, Senator Padme Amidala or Senator Riyo Chuchi,” Wolffe stated in a rapid fire report, after all, all three of them HAD been her friends and did have her comm code prior to everything that had went down due to the undercover mission but the General was already moving, that he didn’t notice that Wolffee hadn’t stated the one name that should of put up warning bells by the simple fact that it was missing from the provided list: Clone Captain Rex.

***

Cody looked over the orders on the bridge of the Resolute, they had been tasked with following a rumor about a Separatist Stronghold on the edge of Wildspace. 

“Commander?” questioned Sol, as they waited for guidance on where they were heading.

“We have been tasked with locating a supposive Separatist Stronghold, near the edge of Wildspace,” he reported. 

“Wildspace?” Ahsoka questioned fascinatingly as she looked over at Rex who had been silent so far. “Rex?”

“We can rearm at the GAR outpost near the outer rim,” he provided as he leaned against the display. “But we won’t be able to resupply once we enter that area of space.”

“Your right,” Cody agreed as he looked down at the map that displayed their course. “We’ll need to request double the supplies,” he mused as he thought of the storage capability of the ships in their combined fleet. “How much storage does the fleet have available?” he questioned Boil who was standing nearby.

“I’ll have a report ready for you by the time we arrive at the outpost,” Boil stated as he grabbed Sol and Jesse as they headed to inspect the fleet.

“What do we know about the area their sending us too?” questioned Ahsoka hesitantly.

“Not much,” Rex shook his head as brought up the area they were tasked with searching on the display map. “Most probes in this area of space are heavily damaged by solar radiation.”

“Great,” she muttered under her breathe. “So, we’re basically going in blind. We’ll need to ensure that the radiation alert protocol is on at all times and I want full sensor scan at all times, I don’t want any unexpected company,” she paused before adding, “Also, ensure that Kix and the medical staff are on high alert, as soon as we cross into Wildspace.”

“Yes, sir,” Cody replied as he placed his hands on the display, nodding his head at Rex, their little Commander was turning into quite the General.

Now they just had to keep her.

***

Anakin watched as the sunset as Obi Wan muttered in his sleep, he had just gotten off of his comm with Master Koon who was on the hunt for Ahsoka and so far, Anakin wasn’t happy at all about what the Master had reported to him about what had happened to his Padawan. When the Jedi Council had requested his and Obi Wan’s help with the mission, he had never thought that it would take over a year to complete and that they would lose everything because of it. Right now, he was just hoping that he would be able to at least SPEAK with his former Padawan and tell her his side of the story about how he never would’ve taken the mission if it had meant that he would lose her and the 501st.

But at the moment he had to deal with the issue of Obi Wan's use of the Darkside of the Force.

***


	4. Some Answers and Theories

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The part where Anakin is the adult in the room.

***

Anakin held his breath as Obi Wan turned gently in his sleep, “Easy there, Master,” he whispered softly as he heard footsteps walking up the ramp directly behind him.

“Young Skywalker?” Master Yoda questioned as he approached the Jedi Knight and the sleeping Jedi Master.

“I didn’t know what else to do,” he muttered as he gestured to the tranq darts laying on a nearby console. “Master Yoda, is there anything that can be done for Obi Wan?” he gazed at the Grandmaster with dread in his eyes.

“Yes, there is,” Yoda replied as he gestured the Jedi Healers forward. “Obi Wan is not the first to break from a mission. Contacted Master Vos I have to help Master Kenobi.

Anakin sighed in relief, “I think that us going to Mandalore was a mistake, Master,” Anakin stated quietly as they followed the Healers toward the Hall of Healing.

“Agreed, Knight Skywalker,” Mace replied. “The mission, Padawan Tano, the Legions, and the Duchess,” he shook his head slowly, “to much grief at once, he needs time to recover.”

“Agreed,” Yoda replied with a thump of his walking stick. “Restricted to the Temple you both are, time to recover you both shall have.”

“Yes, Master Yoda,” Anakin bowed his head in acknowledgement.

***

The Healers placed Obi Wan into a Force trance, in order to help him realign with the lightside of the force. Unfortunately, with his current status and the fact that Anakin refused to leave the Healers Hall, he had to rely on Master Koon to continue the investigation into Ahsoka and the Legions.

“Young Skywalker, how is Obi Wan?” questioned Master Koon as he entered the Hall.

“Recovering, Master,” Anakin replied as he gestured for the Master to take a seat next to him. “Have you discovered anything else?”

“Not since our last conversation I’m afraid,” he replied as he waved a flimsi in his hand. “I went and spoke to Senators Amidala and Chuchi and neither have heard from young Soka since last year, I also spoke with Padawan Offee she hasn’t heard from her either,” he paused as he went through the roster of names that the three had provided to him. “Do you know of anyone else she may have reached out to for help?”

Anakin frowned as he took the flimsi and read through the names on it, as he finished the provided list he started to frown and asked a surprised question, “No Clones?”

“No names were provided,” Koon replied. “Clones don’t keep in contact when their Jedi’s get reassign, why do you ask?”

Anakin paused as he pushed out his senses before answering the Jedi Master, “Ahsoka’s best friend is a Clone.”

“Oh?”

“Yes,” Anakin frowned. “And I highly doubt that even if he had been ordered to that he wouldn’t contact her,” he swore in Huttesse under his breath as he realized that while Ahsoka may no longer by with the 501st that they may have stayed in contact with her. “CT-7567, Captain Rex,” he stated bluntly, “he wouldn’t offer any information if Ahsoka asked him not to,” at Koon’s questioning glance he explained, “if she thought him knowing would get him in trouble, then she’ll tell him not to let ANYONE know.”

“The Captain would lie?”

“Not lie,” Anakin sighed. “Just not provide all the information unless you specifically asked him.”

“Not even you?”

“Obi Wan and I didn’t ask.”

***

Master Koon was curious from Skywalker’s statement and he decided to speak with Wolffe and to see what his Commander thought of the theory.

“Commander Wolffe?” 

“Yes, General?” questioned the Clone Commander as they walked through the GAR barracks.

“Would a Clone lie?”

“Sir?” Wolffe was confused what was the Jedi Master thinking?

“Would a Clone lie if ordered to by a Jedi?” he elaborated.

“Yes, sir,” Wolffe replied swiftly. “In order to keep information safe.”

“What If the information was the location of someone?”

Wolffe stopped at his General’s question, he looked around and then looked directly at his General, “Is this about Commander Tano?”

“Yes, Commander,” Koon supplied, “would Captain Rex lie if Ahsoka asked him not to reveal her location if someone asked?”

“Yes, sir.”

“And would the other Commanders keep that lie going if asked?”

“Yes, General.”

“Did she ask the Clones to lie to hide her location?”

“No, General,” Wolffe stated, smiling inwardly at Koon’s surprised look on his face. “Commander Tano DID NOT order us to lie about her location.”

“I see,” Koon frowned as he thought about Wolffe’s response, he trusted his Commander’s response because he believed that he would never lie to him about something like this. But there was one more thing that he needed an answer to and he wasn’t certain that he really wanted an answer to it. “Would the Clones lie, to protect Ahsoka if they thought that it was in HER best interests?”

Wolffe paused at the phrasing of the question, “Yes, General.”

***

“The Clones are protecting her?” Anakin questioned wondering at the thought.

“I believe so,” Koon replied. “I am still investigating but if the Clones felt that she was at risk then they may have removed her from the threat.”

“Obi Wan and I dying, the Legions threaten with being dismantled and Ahsoka getting a new Master,” Anakin groaned out loud.

“It may have caused the Clones to rally around her,” Koon stated simply. “The Vod have a habit of helping their brothers if they felt they are in trouble, and Ahsoka was well liked by the men of the 501st.”

“But, where is she?”

“Fear not young Skywalker,” Koon stated as he studied the Knight in front of him. “I still have some places to check for our missing Padawan.”

“You think that she’s with the Legion?”

“Possible,” Koon gazed thoughtfully at the flimsi in front of him, “But neither Legion was on Coruscant at the time,” he stated as he pulled up a roster from a year ago. “I will start with the Clones who were on planet first and then spread out from there.”

“Thank you, Master Koon.”

“You’re welcome, young Skywalker.”

***


	5. Temple in Ruins and Inhibitor Chips

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Temple Bombing puts the hunt for Ahsoka on hold while the 501st and 212th Legions run into a problem.

***

The front of the Temple was in ruins, and there were bodies laying everywhere. Master Yoda was in shock as he gazed over the terroristic action that had hit his home at the Jedi Temple.

“We must discovery who did this,” he ordered to the Temple Guards. “Lockdown the Temple we must. No one in and no one out until the perpetrator is located.”

“Who would do this?” Windu questioned as he exchanged started glances with Master Koon.

“I fear that we may not like the answer,” Koon replied as the three Jedi Masters watched as the Guards started arriving.

***

Commander Fox stared in shock at the robed figure that was laying stunned in front of him, Blockcade had just removed the mask and the entire Coruscant Guard was speechless at the sight that was in front of them.

“Commander isn’t that?” Thire sounded stunned as he lowered his blaster.

“Yes,” Fox replied as he gestured for Stone to quickly place the force cuffs on the prone body on the warehouse floor.

“Commander?” Hound was slightly confused who was the bomber?

“It’s Commander Barriss Offee, she’s the Padawan of General Luminara Unduli of the 41st Elite Corps,” Fox stated blankly, his faith in the Jedi shaken for the first time in his life.

Fox knew one thing for certain though, he needed to contact Cody and inform him of what had happened and he had to do it fast before they heard it from someone else.

***

Ahsoka was clutching her arm in disbelief as Rex stood nearby with his DC-17s still pointed at the fallen Clone Trooper Tup.

“Rex,” Ahsoka was pretty sure that she was going into shock. “Did TUP just shoot me?”

“Commander, we need to get you to Kix,” he stated as he gestured for Fives to secure Tup and to take him back to the Gunship for transport to the Resolute.

“Alright,” she replied as she allowed Rex to help guide her to the gunship.

Rex was worried, Ahsoka was clearly in shock and wasn’t processing what had nearly just happened to her, if he had been even a second late with his shot, she would’ve… Tup would’ve KILLED her. “Jesse, you’re in charge,” he ordered as he headed away from the battlefield, there was no way he was going to allow her to travel with her near killer without him standing by her side.

“Yes, sir,” Jesse was in denial as well, there was no way that had just happened, no way that his brother just SHOT at Commander Tano, their little sister. He moved toward the other troopers who were standing still, none of them had reacted when Tup had pointed his blaster at the Commander. If it hadn’t been for Rex’s reflex’s she would’ve been killed by one of their own before any of them had done a thing to stop him.

***

Master Koon sat with his fellow Council Members as they discussed what was to be done with Padawan Barriss Offee after she bombed the Jedi Temple and killed nearly a dozen people in her quest to prove that the Jedi had fallen.

“Why did you do this Padawan?” questioned Windu as he sat forward in his chair.

“The Jedi are no longer the peacekeepers of the galaxy,” she coldly stated as she glared at the Council members. “The people of the Republic know this to be the truth and that is why they now fear the Jedi Order.”

“So, your answer was to cause mass fear?” Master Secura questioned with a puzzled tone in her voice.

“In order to show that the Jedi should not be involved in the war!”

“There are many ways to demonstrate that, youngling,” Master Ti stated as her hologram flickered lightly.

“How?” demanded Barriss. “The Jedi are just lapdogs for the Senate! We are no longer Peacekeepers; we are just Warmongers!”

“Padawan… “

“No, Master Yoda,” Barriss cut off harshly. “Look at what the Jedi have done to themselves! Remember those we have lost due to the bloodshed of this conflict that we never should have been involved in!”

***

Meanwhile, Ahsoka was standing inside medical alongside Cody and Rex as Kix walked toward them holding an inhibitor chip that he had just removed from Tup.

“What is that?” questioned Cody as he took it from Kix and passed it over to Rex.

“An inhibitor chip,” Kix stated. “We all have them,” he handed over a datapad with the scans he had taken of Tup, Coric and himself.

“No way are they just inhibitor chips,” Ahsoka stated as she gestured toward the bacta patch on her arm. “Tup was aiming at me, and no one else,” she frowned as she glanced over at the recovering Clone. “Get the inhibitor chips out of all of the men,” she ordered swiftly as she held up her hand to stop the complaint from Kix. “What happens if Cody’s chip goes next or Rex’s?” she questioned. “We’re in Wildspace with no communication with the Republic,” she glanced around the medical bay.

“The Commander is right,” Rex agreed as he looked over at Tup. “We lucked out that Tup’s chip malfunctioned on his own but what if multiple Clones are compromised at the same time?” he gestured toward the recovering Clone, “We can’t afford to take the risk if it happens again…”

“Commander Tano is correct, the inhibitor chips need to be removed,” Cody agreed as well. “Get to it Kix.”

“Yes, Sirs,” the medic nodded as he headed toward his office in order to organize the mass de-chipping of the 501st and 212th Legions.

“What do we tell the GAR once we’re back in contact?”

“Nothing,” Ahsoka replied, “This gets mentioned to no one,” she recommended as she glanced between her Co-Commanders, “Agreed?” she was slightly afraid that it was the wrong call but she trusted Cody and Rex to call her on it if it wasn’t a correct order.

They nodded in agreement; whatever those inhibitor chips were meant for no longer mattered because they didn’t want anyone to know they had malfunctioned and that a Clone had tried to kill a Jedi. Not to mention that at that point they would have two Legions without the inhibitor chips and who knows how the Kaminoans, Senate, GAR or the Jedi would react to that.

***

Anakin paused in his reading when he sensed Master Windu and Master Koon approach him as he sat next to a still slumbering Obi Wan, he set aside the datapad that he had been utilizing to read up on mission reports from the 501st.

“Masters,” Anakin stood up and bowed in acknowledgment of the two Masters. “Did you have any luck in contacting Master Vos?”

“A message has been sent, but he hasn’t responded yet,” Mace revealed as he moved to sit next to the exhausted Anakin. “He is on a mission and is scheduled to report in, later this week.”

“Alright,” Anakin nodded at the news as he glanced back at Obi Wan. “Please wake up, Master,” he whispered and he was startled that Master Windu and Master Koon placed their hands on his shoulder in support.

“Do not fear, young Skywalker,” Koon stated gently. “Obi Wan is strong and he WILL return to us.”

“Are you certain?” Anakin sounded like the lost little boy who first came to the Jedi Temple all those years ag.

“I am POSITIVE,” Koon replied as he gently squeezed his shoulder as he sat down in order to join him in his wait for Master Kenobi to awaken from his enforced slumber.

***


	6. Communication & Information

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cody and Fox have a talk and trade some information.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided that this conversation needed to be it's own solo chapter.

***

Fox contacted Cody later that night on the GAR Clone Commander Emergency Channel, “Cody?”

“Fox, is there a problem?” the Marshall Commander was stun about how his fellow Commander was contacting him on the Emergency Channel since the 212th and 501st were literally in Wildspace and communication to and from the Republic was close to impossible. “How are you?”

“I’m using a dedicated communication booster from Senator Riyo Chuchi,” Fox revealed. “I asked for her help since I wanted to contact you in order to let you know about the status of the Generals.”

“What happened?” While the pair were no longer assigned to the Legions, they were still important to the men of the 212th and the 501st and if the pair actually DIED after faking their deaths, it would be another crushing blow that neither Legion needed at the moment.

“There was an incident at the Jedi Temple,” Fox revealed softly. “A bombing.”

“Are …” 

“General Kenobi and General Skywalker are both alright,” Fox stated, “They were both in the Hall of Healing at the time.”

“Who?

“Commander Barriss Offee,” Fox replied grimly before he continued, “she’s the Padawan of General Luminara Unduli of the 41st Elite Corps.”

“Offee?” Cody muttered under his breath. “The Commander’s Jedi friend?”

“Yes,” Fox sighed loudly.

“Haar'chak,” Cody muttered as he moved toward a more private location in order to continue their talk in peace. 

“It’s worse than you realize,” Fox said as he moved some files around his desk. “The Jetii tried to blame Commander Tano.”

“Di’kut!”

“It made my job easier, since it allowed me to focus on the Jetii that had a relationship with her prior to her departure from Coruscant,” Fox revealed grimly. “It brought the total number of suspects down to less than a dozen,” he sighed. “It was an interesting conversation with the Jetii Council after we arrested Offee.”

“They refused to believe the evidence?” Cody didn’t sound at all surprised at that news.

“Not until we showed them video of her,” Fox replied with a groan. “The Jetii didn’t understand why we never tried to find Tano after they identified her as the primary suspect.”

“What did you say?” Cody sounded interested in his response.

“That any di’kut would know that Commander Tano wasn’t involved with the bombing and that they should know that she isn’t even on Coruscant at the moment.”

Cody laughed outload at Fox’s response, “Did they call you out on your response?”

“Negative,” Fox laughed as well. “I don’t think they processed my statement fully, but they will.”

“And we’re ready for them,” Cody replied stiffly. “We knew that ever since Kenobi and Skywalker showed up alive, that they would focus their attention on locating the Commander,” he paused and then added on, “although I never thought they would use a manhunt as the means to try to locate her.”

“Every Vod on Coruscant was VERY confused at that broadcast,” Fox revealed. “They all went through the motions of a planetwide manhunt in order to pacify the Council and Senate.”

“I bet they were,” Cody shook his head at the thought of his Vod conducting a manhunt for someone that they all knew wasn’t even on the planet and hadn’t been for over a year. “It’s a good thing you contacted me, it saved me from reaching out to you.”

“What do you mean?”

“We had a bit of an issue here,” Cody paused. “Things went to haran ibi'tuur,” he muttered, “We all have inhibitor chips in our heads that are going bad, a Vod nearly killed the Commander.”

“Explain.”

“I wasn’t with them when it happened,” Cody stated as he went and coldly revealed everything that had happened earlier that day to Commander Tano and Tup.

“Soka, Rex and Torrent Company were on the western edge of the battle, when Tup started to complain of a headache, he started to mutter ‘Good Soldiers Follow Orders,” his voice went raspy at that statement, that was a statement that every Vod dreamed of. “He turned his weapons on her and…” Cody slammed his fist into a nearby wall before he continued, “He was aimed for a kill shot.”

“Haar'chak,” Fox cursed as soon as Cody finished informing him of what had happened. “Are they both going to be alright?”

“Lek,” he replied. “As soon as Rex realized what was happening, he stunned Tup,” Cody paused in the retailing as he took a deep breath in order to organize his thoughts as Ahsoka had taught him. “I have no idea how Rex even realized what was happening,” he muttered under his breath. “They were surrounded by an ARC and dozens of men but he was the only one who reacted.”

“Jate,” Fox muttered. “But how did Rex…” his voice trailed off in question.

“He won’t tell me,” Cody replied. “He and Ahsoka have both shutdown any requests for explanations.”

“According to Fives Rex’s attention wasn’t even on the two of them,” Cody grabbed a datapad with the ARC’s report. “He just said that Rex stopped talking turned around and stunned Tup before anyone even realized that he had pointed a blaster at the Commander. Thankfully the Commander was able to get out of the way enough that he only managed to strike her arm.”

“Who understands those two?” Fox countered.

Cody laughed at Fox’s response, for it was the truth, “No one,” Cody replied with an ease he hadn’t felt since he received the comm about the shooting. “I’m sending you the information on the inhibitor chips, as well as the guidance to the Medics on how to remove them.”

Fox paused when he received the file, “The GAR and Senate haven’t been informed?”

“Negative,” Cody grinned slightly when he heard Fox curse at the authorization for the removal of the inhibitor chips. “The information can’t go beyond the Vod,” Cody cautioned. “General’s orders.”

“Vod’ika Al'verde?” Fox laughed at the name as he disconnected the comm with Cody and grabbed his datapad and started to generate a Commander Notice about the inhibitor chips and the removal authorization.

***


	7. Visitors & Torrent Secrets

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Visiting Jedi and Torrent comes clean, while Master Vos rakes Master Yoda over the coals.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're edging closer to the Jedi Council figuring things out.

***

Cody stood in the Negotiator’s hanger bay next to Admiral Block as they waited for General Rivi-Anu to disembark from her fighter. The Jedi General was dropping off some intelligence from the GAR since their communication with the Republic was spotty at best at the moment. He glanced down at his comm and noticed a sort message from Fox which merely stated, ‘Parjir’ which caused him to grin unexpectedly, Fox moved fast he mused as his attention was drawn toward the red-haired humanoid walking toward him.

“General,” he and Admiral Block acknowledged as they saluted and gestured for her to follow them toward the Ready Room that they had on stand-by for their mission debrief. While she was only passing off intelligence reports, protocol demanded that she be treated with all regular Delegation standards.

“Thank you, Admiral, Commander,” she nodded at the pair as they moved swiftly through the ship, acknowledging the troopers with a dismissal glance as they passed by them.

After a year of Ahsoka’s relaxed leadership and friendship with the Clones, Cody was slightly annoyed with the Knight’s easy dismissal of the troopers around them. Ahsoka never would have ignored any of the men and she would’ve held up the meeting to ensure that she acknowledged any of the men that they had encountered along their route especially the shinnies to make sure that they were being treated fairly by the Legion.

***

Quinlan Vos arrived on Coruscant in the dead of night, and easily slipped into the Healing Hall in the Jedi Temple. He was interested in what exactly the status was of Obi Wan, since Master Yoda’s message was rather vague, he paused as he entered Obi Wan’s room because the Master was not alone, Knight Skywalker, as well as Master Windu and Master Koon were there as well, although all three of the non-injured Jedi were sleeping on in chairs that surrounded the injured Jedi Master.

“Master Vos,” Yoda said quietly as he motioned for the Kiffar Jedi Master to follow him outside into the Hall.

“What happened to Obi Wan?” he questioned as soon as they were away from the sleeping Jedi.

“To much, to soon,” the Grandmaster stated as he led Master Vos toward a nearby courtyard. “Master Kenobi was not recovered from his undercover mission when he went on a mission to Mandalore in order to help free the Duchess and her people for the Sith Lord Maul.”

“Maul’s alive?” Vos was stunned, he had heard of the Sith Lord from Obi Wan and he had been under the impression that he had died on Naboo over ten years prior.

***

Admiral Block gestured for the General to sit down as before he and Cody took their seats across from her.

“Thank you for coming,” the Admiral stated as passed the Jedi General a cup of caf, as he waved off the two trooped who had escorted them to the briefing room.

“You’re welcome, she replied as she glanced curiously over at Command Cody who proved the old adage that looks weren’t everything because while the Clone Commander LOOKED at ease his Force sense wasn’t at all remotely calm. “I there something wrong Commander?” she questioned suddenly.

“My apologies, General,” Cody shook his head gently as though to clear it and then replied to her question, “Things have been a bit out of sort at the moment.”

“I understand,” she replied as she grimaced at the comm she had received from Master Mundi that had revealed that Master Kenobi and Knight Skywalker had been alive this entire time. “I couldn’t believe the report when I received either,” she paused before continuing. “It feels as though I have lost touch with my fellow Jedi since the start of the war,” she had after all been on back-to-back missions for nearly two years and hadn’t been to the Jedi Temple in nearly five.

***

Vos was MAD at the Jedi Council, “What the kriff were you thinking letting Obi Wan go on a rescue mission against MAUL against all known Sith?” he seethed to the Grandmaster.

“Obi Wan requested the mission,” Yoda revealed as his voice betrayed his age. “Both he and Skywalker both said they were ready for the mission.”

“Liars,” Vos muttered under his breath as he walked away from Master Yoda and gazed around the Room of a Thousand Fountains. “What has happened to you Obi Wan?” he sighed out loud as he gazed with wounded eyes at Master Yoda.

“Far more then they have told us,” Yoda replied grimly as sat at the edge of a nearby fountain. “For the darkness to take a hold of one as light as Obi Wan then he must have been far closer to the edge then even young Skywalker had known.”

“What of Padawan Tano?” he questioned suddenly. “Whatever happened to Skywalker’s Padawan?”

“Missing since we reported their fall,” Yoda stated as he closed his eyes. “No one has seen or heard from the Padawan since.”

“Has anyone looked for her?” Vos asked as a feeling of dread entered his stomach, he was not sure that he wanted to know the answer.

***

After they had finished their discussion about the data that General Rivi-Anu had brought them they were escorting her back to her fighter when they ran into Rex and Ahsoka.

“Ah, hello,” she smiled at the site of the Padawan, “I am Jedi Knight Rivi-Anu, and who are you?”

“Hello, Knight Rivi-Anu,” Ahsoka bowed her head in acknowledgement, “I am Padawan Tano.”

“Hello, youngling,” she replied and who is your Master?”

“Our Jedi is General Al'verde,” Cody interrupted with a practiced ease, “She’s been off ship and on a recon mission,” Cody slightly twisted the truth, Ahsoka HAD been on a recon mission and had apparently came back early.

“Oh,” the General appeared sad at the news. “Well, that goes to show you, how long it’s been since I’ve been at the Temple, since I don’t remember a Master Al'verde,” she frowned at the name, struggling to remember a Jedi by that name, not that she’s admit it to the Padawan, but she didn’t even recognize her name either!

***  
Later that night, after the visiting Jedi had finally left, Cody was relaxing in the Mess Hall drinking a cup of caf, before he had to assume bridge watch.

“Cody?” Ahsoka asked quietly as she approached the Marshall Commander where he was sitting. “Do you have a minute?”

“Of course, Commander,” Cody turned slightly and was surprised that she was followed by Rex, Fives and Kix. He gestured to the empty sets at the table and he waited for them to say whatever it was that they had come to tell him.

“There’s something that Rex and I,” she started but stopped when Rex started shaking his head sideways.

“This is on you, littl’un.”

“Right,” she sighed softly as she restarted, “There’s something that I need to tell you.”

“Sir?”

“About me… “she glanced over at the Captain, “and Rex.”

“You’re not… “he gestured between the two of them with a stunned look in his eyes.

“NO!” Rex shouted at his friend. “She’s my Vod’ika,” he muttered under his breath.

Ahsoka’s eyes widened at Cody’s question and Rex’s empathic response, “Force, NO,” she shuddered slightly as she leaned into Fives, trying to get space between her and the Marshall Commander. “He’s my ori'vod.”

“Thanks for that image,” Fives muttered as he glanced over at Kix who looked slightly green at the thought of Ahsoka and Rex INVOLVED together like the way Cody thought.

“All right,” Cody held up his hands admitting defeat, “So what is it?”

“Did Master Kenobi ever tell you about Force Bonds?”

Cody frowned at the words, “He mentioned a bond that he and Skywalker had when he was his Master,” he struggled to remember what else he could recall from that off-handed statement made near the start of the war. “It allows you to communicate, supposedly?”

“It can,” Ahsoka nodded. “If you have a strong relationship with each other, otherwise it’s just a general feeling of one another if you’re in the same area.”

“Like location,” Fives interrupted.

“But if it’s a strong enough bond,” Ahsoka pushed through, “Then then you can communicate or you could sense if the other was in trouble when your further apart.”

“Across the planet?” Cody frowned in thought.

“Like across a solar system,” Kix provided.

“Ok,” Cody looked between the group, “What does this have to do with Ashoka and Rex?” he questioned, “Clones aren’t force sensitive.”

“No, Clones aren’t force sensitive,” Kix acknowledged as he gestured to Ahsoka to take over the explanation.

“Do you remember the mission to Naboo and the Blue Shadow Virus?” Rex stated bluntly.

“Yes,” he frowned. “You both nearly died cause of the Senator.”

“No… “

“Littl’un.”

“You see,” she gestured between herself and Rex, “I may have ACCIDENTLY, of course! I didn’t mean to and I tried to explain to Master Skywalker about what I had done but he was distracted by Padme, yet again…”

“She made a force bond between us,” Rex interrupted Ahsoka’s rambling explanation.

A spew of caf flew out of Cody’s mouth at Rex’s announcement, “WHAT?!”

“I made a force bond between me and Rex,” she said in a small voice as she shrunk back into Fives who was standing directly behind her for moral support.

“Who knows?”

“Not that many people,” she frowned as she glanced over at Rex and behind them at the Clones standing guard at their backs.

“All of Torrent Company,” Kix provided with a shrug, as Cody’s face turned an interesting shade of purple.

“Cody are you alright?”

***


	8. What was that order?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Commander Fox has an expected encounter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fox gets his own chapter to shine.

***

Fox was silent as he quickly left the Senate building, refusing to stop for any idle talk with the Senators in the lobby. He needed to get out of this building before he did something that not only would he regret but that could bring the absolute wraith of the Chancellor, Republic Senate, GAR and Jedi Order down against his brothers and Vod’ika.

“Commander Fox!” Senator Padme Amidala called out as she moved to intercept the departing Clone.

“Senator,” Fox tried to keep the impatient from his voice with the Naboo Senator. He couldn’t afford to draw any attention from any of the Senate Guards who were watching him with a questioning look in their eyes. “Is there something that I can help you with ma’am?”

“I was wondering if you had heard anything about General Kenobi or General Skywalker’s recovery?” Padme asked hesitantly, she hadn’t heard from Anakin since he and Obi Wan had returned from their mission to Mandalore.

“No, ma’am,” Fox shook his, “The last update I received on the Generals was that they were still in the Healing Hall at the moment,” he paused but decided NOT to inform the Senator the actual status of Kenobi. “I can put in a status update request with the Jedi Council though if you would like?”

“No,” she shook her head as she stepped back. “But if you could inform me if you hear anything?”

“Yes, Senator,” Fox bowed slightly as he watched her walk away before he walked straight out of the Senate building and getting into the waiting speeder with Thire.

“You alright, Vod?” questioned Thire as he pulled away from the Senate building.

“I need to contact Cody,” the still stunned Commander stated as he turned to look at Thire with a dead look in his eye, “I figured out what the inhibitor chips actually make us do.”

“What?”

“They have orders imbedded in them,” he muttered quietly. “The Chancellor just tried to give me an off the record mission to execute a Senator…”

“What?!”

“But before he did,” Fox continued in a deaden voice. “He said Order 61, and as soon as he said it he gave me the orders, I was in a state of shock when Mas come in and they started talking about treason and Mas had made an off-handed comment about me still being in the room and the Chancellor said that I wouldn’t remember anything once I had completed my mission.”

“O’sik,” Thire muttered, as he speed up in order to make it back to Guard Headquarters.

***

“Are you certain?” Cody questioned for the third time.

“Yes,” Fox growled. “The chips have orders imbedded in them and when there activated, we have no control or memory of anything that occurs while under its influence.”

“O’sik,” Cody muttered causing Thire to laugh under his breath at the Marshall Commander’s response. “So, if Tup’s chip hadn’t gone bad…”

“We wouldn’t have any idea,” Fox nodded. “It would have been covered up if the Kaminoans had found out,” he gestured toward the silent Padawan standing next to him. “Thankfully Commander Tano’s orders stopped that from happening,” he nodded his thanks to the youngling, if she hadn’t of made her order of silence about Tup’s actions and then the additional order of the mass removal of the inhibitor chips, then the entire Clone Army would have been a ticking time bomb designed to go off against the Republic and the Jedi they served.

“Good call, huh Rexter?” she looked over at the Captain at her side, who had remained silent the entire time.

“How many of the inhibitor chips are still in?” Rex suddenly questioned as he glanced between Fox and Thire, the pair had been tracking the process from Coruscant.

“Every Vod outside of Kamino have had their chip removed,” Fox stated to the stunned group in the hologram. “What can I say, we moved fast.”

“There’s fast and then there’s FAST,” Ahsoka muttered with awe in her voice.

“Once the medics had the med droids programed it was a simple ten-minute procedure,” Thire supplied. “Between the bots and the medics, they were able to clear a good number each day.”

“When is your mission suppose to be complete?” questioned Cody with a harden look entering his eyes.

“Tomorrow morning,” Fox replied with a slight grimace, “Twenty-four hours before the Chancellor find’s out about the inhibitor chips being removed.”

“You and your men need to get off of Coruscant,” Ahsoka bluntly stated as she glanced down at the holo table in front of her.

“But go where Commander?” Thire questioned with a frown. “There’s no where to go that we would be safe from GAR forces."

“Wildspace,” Rex supplied with a glance at the map in front of them. “You can meet up with us and we can misdirect any searches in the area.”

“That may work,” Cody nodded. “You will have to take a long way around and ensure that the tracking system on your ship has been disabled.”

“We can manage that,” Fox replied as he glanced over at Thire who had grabbed his comm and started to send out the orders to their men. “We’ll have to move fast.” Fox moved to shut down the secure comm with the Resolute. “See you soon.”

“Be safe, Vod,” Cody ordered as he clutched the end of the holo table as Fox turned off his transmission.

***


	9. Common Sense

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The part were Quinlan Vos explains things to Obi Wan and things go haywire.

***

It had taken time in order to get the exhausted Jedi Master to relax enough in order to work out what had happened to him over the past year, but the key Quinlan quickly realized was to wait for Obi Wan to speak at his own time and not to rush him no matter how often they saw one another nor how much their fellow Jedi wished for him to.

Quinlan paused as he watched Obi Wan stop in the middle of the Room of a Thousand Fountains, reaching his hand out to touch a fountain before clutching his hand close and returning it to his side.

“Obi Wan you know there’s no harm you can do,” Quin stated as he approached the still silent Jedi Master who had refused to speak since he had awakened in the Hall of Healing. “Why won’t you speak?” he mused a he gestured for the male to sit down on a nearby bench.

Obi Wan sat down were Quinlan gestured but he froze when he sat down next to him, he tried to shift slightly away from him but Quin refused to allow him to escape. He had been like this since he had awakened, getting into his space while the rest all stepped away, Quin stepped forward. He wondered what the Kiffar Master was getting out of all this, and why he seemed to be so invested in the partially fallen Jedi Master.

“Come on Obi,” Quin turned to look at the Jedi with a questioning look in his dark eyes. “What happened to you to cause YOU of all Jedi to reach for the darkside of the Force?”

“Loss,” Obi Wan replied quietly, his voice rusty after not having used it for a while.

At the sound of his voice, Quinlan stopped mid move, he sighed softly as he muttered, “Satine?”

“Not just Satine,” he replied, the heartache of the past year evident in his voice, ‘She was merely the latest in a string of loses that I can longer withstand the pain of losing,” he paused as he reached out and ran his hand over the smooth stone of the bench they were sitting on. “How do you get used to losing everyone you care about and acting as though each loss doesn’t actually cut you in the gut?”

“You don’t,” the Kiffar Master replied as he squeezed his hand. “You merely remember each person you lose and work to honor their memory and pray that the Force is merciful in your quest to honor their sacrifice.”

“I went on that mission because I believed that it was the RIGHT and JUST thing to do,” Obi Wan started to get angry. “Except instead of a couple of weeks it transformed in a year long mission not to mention that they dragged Anakin into the whole mess as well.”

Quinlan sat in silence as he waited for Obi Wan to continue.

“They took away Cody and the 212th from me,” he turned dead eyes to Quinlan. “Anakin lost his Padawan and the 501st,” he continued as his voice broke at the mention of Ahsoka. “The only reason we agreed to take the mission was with the agreement that they wouldn’t be reassigned in our absence.”

“But Obi Wan you KNOW that they couldn’t wait forever before they had to have them reassigned,” Quinlan stated.

“I know,” he sighed but even as he acknowledged the truth in Quinlan’s words, he felt a flash of angry reappear within his heart at Ahsoka’s still unknown fate. “The Council doesn’t even KNOW where Ahsoka is located.

“How could they lose a Padawan?” questioned Quinlan, he had a few ideas on where the missing Padawan was but he wanted to see if Obi Wan had thought of it yet on his own.

“What do you mean?”

“Let’s start at the beginning, what do you ACTUALLY know?”

“Ahsoka had been called into the Council Chambers in order to be informed officially of mine and Anakin’s deaths,” Obi Wan stated ensure of where Quinlan was going with this line of questioning. “She had been told by Yoda and Mace that she was going to reassigned…”

Quinlan held up his hand in order to interrupt, “Who told you that?”

“What?”

“Who told you that she was going to be reassigned?”

“Commander Cody and Captain Rex when me and Anakin spoke with them,” he countered with a frown forming on his face. “Apparently Rex had contacted Commander Fox for help in contacting her…” he cut off again when Quinlan once again raised his hand.

“What was wrong with her communicator?”

“She wasn’t receiving communications from the 501st and they had grown concerned,” he supplied as he thought about what he had just said. “Commander Fox reported that she had received a new comm from him.”

“Who issued the communicator?”

“What?” Obi Wan had a confused look on his face at his question, “What does THAT matter?”

“Everything,” he countered.

“Commander Fox.”

“So, she WASN’T issued a Jedi comm?”

“No…” he frowned. “What does that matter?”

“Because Obi Wan,” Quinlan rested his hands on his legs and leaned forward slightly as he continued with his explanation, “Guard communicators have a separate security level on them, if you don’t have their code then you CAN’T contact them.”

“But why…”

“Because their HIDDING her,” he muttered gruffly. “Whatever happened after your DEATHS caused the Clones to rally around her,” he shrugged at Obi Wan’s disbelief.

“That’s…”

“If she has a Guard communicator then that means that she’s basically one of them,” Quinlan stated bluntly. “Fox doesn’t just GIVE those out to anyone who’s not considered to be a brother.”

“Osik,” Obi Wan growled loudly, forcing himself to remain calm at the realization that the Clones KNEW where Ahsoka had been this entire time and didn’t tell anyone! “But why…”

“The better question is what exactly did the Council do to her that caused them to close ranks around her,” he replied.

“You don’t think…”

“Anything is possible,” he shrugged in reply. “They don’t always think before they speak and it can cause issues.”

“Right,” Obi Wan nodded as he recalled his own issues with the Council throughout his time with the Jedi.

Obi Wan stood up, he wanted to go to the Council and demand to know EXACTLY what they had said the last time they had seen Anakin’s Padawan.

“Where are you going?”

“To find out what they said to my Grand Padawan!”

“Don’t you want to know what I think about WHERE she is?”

“What do you mean?” questioned Obi Wan with an ensure look on his face. “There’s no record of her leaving the planet, Mace went through all of the Assignment orders from the timeframe.”

“Who’s not worried?”

“What?”

“Who’s the calmest in this who mess?”

Obi Wan frowned as he thought of everyone that he, Anakin and Plo had spoken to about Ahsoka, “The Clones?” he guessed, “I would have to say that they are the calmest in this whole mess.”

“Who hasn’t been on planet since she’s vanished?”

“What do you mean?”

“Tano’s in trouble, who’s the first one’s who show up?” When he saw that Obi Wan was confused at his question, he tried to direct his friend’s train of thought. “Who’s the fist people who are at her side when she gets in trouble in the field?”

“Anakin.”

“Who else?”

“Me.”

“And?”

“Rex?” he sounded unsure now.

Quinlan nodded at Rex’s name, “And guess who hasn’t been to Coruscant since before your ‘deaths’ and who hasn’t been at all that concerned by the reports I got from Master Koon.”

“But he wasn’t on Coruscant at the time…”

“No, but Fox was,” Quinlan stated. “And a thousand brothers who would be willing to help another.”

“But how did they get Ahsoka off of the planet?”

“Commander Ponds was here at the time and he can sign off on TRAVEL orders,” Quinlan stated simply. “Not assignment orders, Mace looked under the wrong section,” Quinlan tossed over a datapad at the stunned Master sitting next to him.

“How?”

“Between Anakin, Mace, and Plo, I had plenty of time to research the missing Padawan,” he shrugged slightly. “I was just waiting for you to come back to yourself before revealing it.”

“Quin,” Obi Wan leaned slightly into his friend’s side. “Thank you for coming and helping me.”

Quinlan’s communicator went off with a high pitch alert, “Vos,” he stated as he waited for the person on the other side to report whatever it was, they needed to.

“Master Vos, the Coruscant Guard building has just been blown up,” Mace informed him as he paused for a moment before continuing with dread in his voice, “Apparently Senator Riyo Chuchi who represented the planet Pantora was in the building at the time of the explosion.”

“The ENTIRE Guard and a Senator?” Vos sounded stunned at the report. “How is that possible?”

“Unknown at this time Master Vos,” Mace replied. “But that’s not the worst part of this whole mess.”

“What do you mean?”

“A vid was leaked that shows Chancellor Palpatine and Senator Mas Amedda, planning the murder of a Senator,” Mace revealed with dread evident in his voice.

“Is it real?” questioned Obi Wan.

“Yes,” Mace replied as he continued his report to Quinlan. “Vos are you available to get over to the Senate in order to go through the Chancellor’s office? He has already been remanded into custody along with Senator Mas and is currently being held within the Senate building until we have a chance to go over his office.”

“Of course, Master Windu,” Quinlan replied quickly, “I will be right over.”

“I will see you soon,” Mace replied as the communicator shut off.

“Looks like we’re going to the Senate,” Obi Wan held up his hand in order to stop Quin’s refusal, “The sooner we handle this accusation against the Chancellor, the destruction of the Guard building and the death of Senator Chuchi,” he paused at the pending workload. “The sooner we can figure out where Ahsoka is.”

“Right,” Quin nodded as Anakin and Master Koon entered the Room of a Thousand Fountains in order to retrieve the Jedi Master.

“Master Vos,” Anakin called out as the pair moved in order to intercept the two rising Jedi. “Have you heard?”

“Mace just informed me,” he gestured his comm as he moved to stand in front of the pair. “Let’s get this settled so we can focus on locating your lost Padawan.”

“Yes, Master,” Anakin nodded as he looked Obi Wan over in concerned. “Are you alright?”

“I am,” he nodded as he felt more at ease then he had in a very long time. “Let’s get this over with so we can focus on Ahsoka.”

“Right.”

***


	10. Malevolence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More answers and a Sith revealed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> no clones, jedi, or senators were harmed in the making of this chapter

***

The darkness and evil leeched into the very air that he breathed as soon as he entered the Chancellor’s office with Obi Wan, Anakin and Plo at his side.

“I just got here and I can feel the malevolence in the very air,” Quinlan stated as he looked like he wanted to puke. “How can anyone enter this room and not FEEL the evil?”

Anakin exchanged stunned glances with Obi Wan and Master Plo, he couldn’t believe that any of the Masters had missed it because now since Master Vos had mentioned the darkness it was evident to all of the force users in the room. He felt sick to his stomach since he had been in this office often since he was nine years old.

Vos approached a nearby cabinet and he open it with extreme caution, and was greeted by a Sith alter. “Here’s a solid warning,” he called over Mace and Yoda with a wave of his hand. “A Sith alter,” he lightly touched a holocron and jerked his hand back as though he had been burnt by the very surface of the object, “The holocron is emitting the darkside of the force,” he called over a couple of the CSF agents and had them take images of the Sith alter. “Just ensure that you don’t touch anything unless you don’t mind losing an arm,” he warned as he headed further into the Chancellor’s chambers.

Within an hour Quinlan had went through the entire office and was literally shaking by the end of it, finally Master Windu had to intervene and ordered Plo to escort him back to the Temple for the night and that he could return if they needed him later on. Given the information and items that Vos had identified there could be zero doubts at the moment: Chancellor Palpatine was the Sith Lord they had been searching for this entire time, he had literally been under the noises of the Senate and the Jedi Order since before the start of the war.

Quinlan breathed in deeply as soon as he was no longer withing the Senate building, “I can breathe again,” he muttered as the group ignore the nearby speeder and opted to walk. “I want to stop by the Guard Headquarters to see if I can sense anything before going back to the Temple,” he requested, glancing at Master Koon since Mace had left him in charge of the three Jedi.

“We can go that way Quinlan,” he replied as he led the way to the remains of the Guard building.

“Who do you think blew up the Guard?” asked Anakin as they came to a stop in front of the remains of the building.

“The Chancellor when he discovered that he was recorded?” Obi Wan suggested.

“But why did they discuss the murder of the Senator in front of Commander Fox and why did the Chancellor mention that he wouldn’t remember the conversation afterwards?” wondered Master Koon.

“We need to talk to a Clone Commander,” Vos stated as he glanced over at Koon, “Is Commander Wolffe available?”

“I will contact him,” Koon held up his communicator and contacted his Commander.

“General?”

“Commander, where are you currently?” he questioned.

“I am at the barracks, General.”

“I will be there in 15 minutes,” Koon cut off Wolffe’s response and looked at his fellow Jedi, “Shall we?”

***

Commander Wolffe was standing near the entrance to the GAR barracks waiting for General Koon to arrive, he had the feeling that the Jedi had finally figured out what had been occurring over the past year.

“Generals,” Wolffe approached the four Jedi that had been approaching from the direction of the destroyed Guard headquarters instead of the Jedi Temple.

“Commander,” Koon paused in front of his Commander with a sigh, “We have some questions for you.”

“Yes, General?”

“What do you know about the vid that was released about the Chancellor and the Senator?” questioned Vos.

“It was recorded from Commander Fox’s HUD.”

“What do you know about his statement that Commander Fox wouldn’t remember anything after he completed the mission that the Chancellor had assigned him?” continued Vos.

“Because he wouldn’t remember anything,” Wolffe stated bluntly as he removed his bucket and glared at the Generals that were standing in front of him.

“Why?” Vos asked softly. “Why would Fox murder someone and why wouldn’t Fox remember anything afterwards?”

“Because we were PROGRAMED that way,” Wolffe growled as slammed his fist into a nearby wall.

“Programmed?” Anakin questioned.

“The inhibitor chips in our heads, that the Kaminoans, GAR and the Jedi all claimed was to prevent us from turning into Jango,” he supplied. “They had orders programed into them that we Clones had no choice but to follow.”

“We have to have them removed!” Obi Wan exclaimed.

“Already taken care of,” Wolffe replied as he pushed his hair up in order to display the scar on the side of his head. “Everyone but the youngest are cleared.”

“Who ordered their removal?” Vos asked curiously. “A Jedi knew?”

“One Jedi knew,” Woffe replied looking the Master straight in the eyes, as though he was daring him to ask WHO the Jedi was that authorized the removal.

“The Jedi Council wasn’t made aware of these inhibitor chips,” Koon supplied with a questioning look entering his eyes as he looked at his Commander with pain in his heart. “You never told me about them.”

“Which Jedi knew?”

“The 212th and 501st General,” he supplied watching General Kenobi and Skywalker closely at the mention of their former Legions. “When the inhibitor chips were discovered she authorized their removal GAR wide.”

“How could she authorize that without the Council’s permission?” Obi Wan questioned as he looked at his fellow Council member in utter confusion.

“She’s now the High General of the GAR,” Wolffe shrugged. “She can authorize anything GAR wide as long as she has two Legion Commanders signatures.”

“Cody and Rex,” Anakin supplied with a look at his fellow Jedi.

“Yes, sir.”

Vos closed his eyes as his mind processed the information that Commander Wolffe had just finished providing to them. “What is the Jedi’s name?” he asked softly, the answer already forming in the corner of his mind, but he just needed the confirmation from the Clone Commander.

“Her name is General Al'verde,” Wolffe stated and he watched as General Kenobi froze at the name, and looked up with a questioning look in his eyes.

“Al'verde?” Obi Wan mumbled under his breathe.

“I don’t know a Jedi by that name,” Anakin frowned as he looked at his fellow Jedi in confusion.

“I don’t think I know a Knight by that name,” Vos stated as he looked over to Master Koon. “But I don’t spend as much time at the Temple as some do, Master Koon?”

“I do not know the name,” he shook his head sideways before realizing that Obi Wan hadn’t said anything since Commander Wolffe had mentioned the new General’s name. “Obi Wan?”

“General Al'verde?” he questioned as he looked Wolffe straight in the eye. “And her first name is?”

“Vod’ika,” he replied with a blank face as he challenged the Jedi Master to reveal what he knew to the rest of his group.

“Obi Wan?” Anakin pushed gently.

“It’s Mandalorian,” he stated as he gazed around the GAR barracks in disbelief.

“Mando’a?” Master Koon looked at his fellow Council member is disbelief, “but there are no Mandalorians in the Jedi Order, there hadn’t been one in over a thousand years.”

“Vod’ika Al'verde,” Obi Wan stated as he approached Wolffe and then turned around to face his fellow Jedi. “In Basic it translates to: Little Sister Commander.”

Anakin started to curse in Hutteses, “It’s kriffing Ahsoka.”

“What?”

“Impossible,” Master Koon said in disbelief.

“It is, isn’t it?” questioned Vos as he gazed at the silent Commander. “An it wasn’t a lie either, it was just a different title.”

“What do you mean?” asked Anakin.

“The Hero with no Fear?” Vos shrugged. “They just used what they called her instead of her actual name, it’s not their fault no one outside of Obi Wan here understands Mando’a.”

“But General?”

Vos shrugged, “I bet if we go through the files in Mace’s office, we’ll find a record of appointment for one Ahsoka Tano to General of the 212th and 501st Legions.”

“How could no one notice?” Koon questioned.

“No one ever asked,” Wolffe revealed with a shrug as he glanced at the Jedi standing in front of him. “No one cared about either of the Legions or Commander Tano after you two went on your mission,” he paused before continuing. “At first no one tried to hide where she was but after a while, we realized that no one cared, about her or the Legions. So, we protected them the only way we could, we gave them a General and had them combined to prevent them from being merged into other Legions.”

“Alright, everybody messed up with Ahsoka and the legions,” Vos stated as he returned to his original line of questioning, “Do you know who blew up the Guard Headquarters and killed the Guard and Senator Chuchi?”

Wolffe frowned, “Who said Senator Chuchi is dead?”

“She was in the building when it was blown up.”

“No, she wasn’t,” Wolffe replied with a sense of ease.

“And how would you know that Commander?” Koon asked.

Wolffe sucked in his breathe before replying, “Because I helped abduct her from her quarters and transport her to the shuttle.”

“Abduction!” Obi Wan was stunned.

“The Chancellor wanted her dead,” he shrugged. “So, she was removed from the line of fire and taken off planet.”

“Why kidnap her, though?”

“We asked nicely first,” he replied. “But she refused to leave by her own free will, so we had to remove her for her own safety.”

“So, where is she?”

“With a Guard detail who are hoping she stays knocked out long enough or at least until they reach their rally point and turn her other so they don’t have to deal with the aftermath.”

“Oh dear,” Obi Wan muttered as he raised his hand to cover the smile forming on his face.

***


	11. Sabaac & Idiots Array (Kriffing Fives)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> On a quest to refuel within Wildspace the 212th and 501st Legions come to the aid of the of the planet Thune and are invited to a celebration.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was not what i had planned for this chapter, but Fives refused to wait any longer...

***

They were in the Thune Spaceport in order to refuel after they had answered a destress signal for an emergency decompression on their outer ring. The Resolute and their fleet had managed to arrive in just enough time in order to extend their shields around the damaged section.

In addition, they had deployed their repair crews in order to fix the damage to the outer ring and provided medical care to those who had been affected by the rapid decompression. Afterwards the Legion had been invited to a celebration on the Spaceport for their assistance in the emergency.

Admiral Block, Ahsoka, Cody and Rex all decided that it would be the prefect opportunity to give their men some downtime in addition to refueling and resupplying their fleet at the same time.

***

“Cody,” Jesse called as he hurried to the Marshall Commander’s side where he was sitting with Rex and Ahsoka at the bar. 

“Jesse,” Cody replied as he swung around in his seat to look at the trooper in the face. “Please tell me no one started a fight,” he pleaded as Ahsoka and Rex turned around in their chairs as well to join their questioning gazes at the Torrent officer.

“It’s Fives,” he muttered grimly as he glanced around the packed bar and leaning slightly toward the Commander triad, “He’s in the middle of a Sabaac game and he’s…”

“Losing?” Ahsoka sighed, “How many credits did he lose?” she questioned as she reached into her belt to grab her credit chip and gestured for Cody and Rex to offer theirs up as well.

“No, sir,” Jesse countered with a shake of his head as he whispered, “He’s WINNING.”

“Alright, and?” Rex questioned as he tossed a confused look over at Cody.

“You have to come SEE,” he stressed as he grabbed Ahsoka’s hand and pulled her out of her chair and toward the back-gaming room.

“What for us!” Cody exclaimed as he and Rex moved to follow the pair toward the card area.

The back room was crowded with Clones who were watching Fives at the table like he was the Force incarnate in front of them.

“What?” Ahsoka looked around in confusion as Jesse finally let her go as they came to a stop next to the table.

“Quiet,” Boil hissed as he swatted her arm as his eyes remained glued to the ARC trooper at the table.

“It’s over,” Fives stated as he placed his cards down for full view, an Idiot’s Array. “I win.”

The other players at the table started to curse at the Clone and one of the player’s looked like he had just been gutted with a blunted vibroblade.

“What is it?” questioned Ahsoka as she finally managed to get Fives attention. The ARC turned around and handed her a datapad, she looked amused as she looked down and the file. “Is this a joke?” she gasped out loud as she passed the datapad over to Cody for him and Rex to read as well.

“It’s true,” the Rodian cursed as he got out of his chair, “Interesting luck there, Clone, let me know if you want to play again before you depart Thune, I’d like the opportunity to win that back,” he shrugged off his partner who looked as though he was going to be sick as well.

Fives nodded his head but he still looked as though he was in disbelief, the way he had been ever since the Rodian had offered up the ownership papers.

“Fives,” Rex muttered as he stared at his brother in disbelief, “You kriffing di’kut,” he grabbed him and hugged the ARC trooped before releasing him to be hugged by numerous brothers who had all been watching in anticipation for the final card to be shown.

“Fives,” Ridge slapped his shoulder as Kix and Coric moved forward in order to clasped his shoulder in acknowledgement of his actions.

“Only you,” Havoc laughed as he moved toward the bar in order to order a round of drinks for the men.

“Indoumodo,” Cody read on the datapad. “Anyone heard of it?” he questioned curiously.

“Negative, Commander,” Boil replied as he shifted to read the datapad over his shoulder. “Can we keep it?” he asked quietly.

“Clones can’t own anything,” Cody replied as Fives moved to stand next to the group.

“Clones can’t,” Rex muttered. “Nats can though,” he looked directly at Ahsoka was glanced behind her to see who they were talking about.

“Me?” she was stunned when she realized Rex had been referring to her in his comment about being a Natural Born.

“Commander, will you sign the papers?” Fives asked quietly as he looked at the datapad that was still being held by Commander Cody.

“Where is Indoumodo anyway?” she asked.

Surprisingly it was Wooley who provided the information, as he read the data he had pulled of the holonet, “Indoumodo is a jungle planet located in the Wildspace region the planet contains venomous insects that are called kouhuns that are native to the planet’s southern hemisphere which is comprised of a massive swamp region, the kouhuns are known to hunt prey that are as large as Loth wolves,” he paused before continuing on, “The planet's northern hemisphere is comprised mainly of jungles that are known for their hanava trees and contain a large population of greddleback termites.”

Fives looked slightly green at the news that the planet had giant insects that could eat him but he shallowed his initial rejection, “At least it doesn’t have killer plants like Felucia.”

Ahsoka sighed as she took the datapad from Cody and read over the file which if she signed would make her the ‘official owner’ of Fives planet. “What would you even do WITH a planet, Fives?” she asked suddenly.

“It will be our home,” he stated as he looked over his gathered brothers, “A safe place for after the war, where Clones can be free and where our allies can go if they don’t want to return to the Temp…I mean the Core,” he faltered at almost saying that he meant that she may not want to return to the Jedi Temple after the war and that she may want to leave the Jedi Order.

Ahsoka nodded her head slightly as she signed the datapad and tossed it over to Fives, “Make sure that you get that filed before we leave, take Jesse with you, just in case,” she waved Jesse to follow the ARC to the Registry office.

“Yes, sir,” Fives grabbed Jesse as they ran out of the bar.

***

Ahsoka walked onto the bridge of the Negotiator later that night, with a far heavier heart then she normally had after a successful mission.

“Commander Tano,” Admiral Block called out when he spotted the young Jedi approaching the star chart, “I hear that congratulations are in order,” he smiled at the Jedi who that even after a year working together still managed to surprise the seasoned Admiral.

“I’m still surprised,” she shook her head as she entered in the star coordinates of the planet Indoumodo, and pulled it up on the bridge display. “Fives won a PLANET.”

“Only Fives would’ve taken that bet,” Admiral Block waved his hand over the star chart. “A planet vs credits; no other man would’ve taken that bet.”

“I know,” she sighed as she touched the light sabers that resided on her belt.

“Are you going to return to the Jedi Temple after the war?” the Admiral asked suddenly, “Will you remain with the Order or will you remain with the men?”

“I already made that choice Admiral,” she smiled slightly as she waved around them. “If I was remaining with the Order, I never would’ve told Cody and Rex to go ahead with my ‘promotion’ and gone comm silent with everyone from my old life as Master Skywalker’s Padawan when I rejoined the 501st and 212th.”

Admiral Block nodded at her statement, “I’m going to remain as well,” he stated suddenly causing her to look at him in disbelief, “My wife died over ten years before the start of the war and my son was killed at the beginning of the war. My only family is the one in this fleet,” he smiled at her before continuing, “Why do you think I never reported that you were here?”

“Admiral…”

“Let’s go check out this planet, shall we?”

***


	12. Unexpected Findings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Unexpected findings

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> short & sweet

***

“What the osik?” cussed the Clone who approached the holding cell in the back of the Separatists ship that they had just boarded.

“Keys, we have to go!” shouted Maze as he stopped at the entrance to the holding area, “The General is ordering us to pull out,” he continued, pausing mid-sentence as he realized his Vod wasn’t paying him any attention, “Keys, what is it?” he questioned as he approached the unresponsive Clone.

“Look,” Keys said as he swiftly moved in order to start releasing the straps that were holding the prisoner down. “Help!” he shouted at Maze as he paused and grabbed him and pulled him closer.

“What did they do to him?” Maze wondered as they holstered their blasters and grabbed the comatose male between them and headed toward the rally point.

“Maze, Keys, where were you two?” demanded the Clone Commander when he spotted his final two men approaching the gunship, “Who is that?” he demanded as he called out for the medic.

“Unknown,” Keys stated as they headed toward the medic Glacier who had had grabbed his gear as soon as he spotted their guest.

“Get him in the gunship,” he ordered as he directed the men to clear a space in order to lay the injured male down in order for him to be treated.

Maze and Keys helped to lay the Clone on the deck of the gunship.

“What the frak did the Seps do to him?” Glacier muttered as he took in the heavy modifications to the Clone, his right arm, lower torso and both legs, had been replaced with cybernetic parts. “Why would the Separatists spend so much credits on keeping a Clone this damaged alive?” he questioned as he tossed a questioning look over his shoulder toward his Commander.

Commander Grey removed his bucket as he frowned at the injured Clone, “I have no clue,” he reached for his comm and snapped an image of the Clone and with the intention of pushing it out to his fellow Commanders without even processing WHY he was doing it. “Can you wake him up?” he asked Glacier.

“Once we’re back onboard the Absolute, Commander,” he replied as he continued to take the troopers vitals.

***

***  
Commander Chat

Grey: Does this Clone belong to anyone *image attached

Cody: Osik

Cody: He’s ALIVE

Grey: We just recovered him from a Separatist ship

Cody: ...

***


End file.
